About

A set of Mies van der Rohe black leather and chrome chairs produced by Knoll International matched to a Takehiko Mizutani MZ59 table
These chairs are a design icon being one of the very first cantilever design chairs ever designed by van der Rohe. Comfortable and perfectly balanced they have become one of the most enduring designs of the 20th Century with manufacturing starting in 1927 and still continuing to this day. Originally known as the Weissenhof chair (after the exhibition it was first launched at) and produced by Gebrüder Thonet within Europe, the license to produce the chairs in the U.S. was later acquired by Knoll International who started production in the late 1950’s. Although the chrome work was imprinted with Knoll’s branding much later in production, around the 1990’s, earlier versions were not marked. However they are still reliably identified by a number of indicators: apart from weight and the general quality of craftsmanship, the Knoll version of the chair is recognised by the lace back and sprung seat base which along with the offset chrome seat stretcher and small rear back slide stop hooks are key signatures of Knoll’s original production method.
The chairs are a perfect match to the MZ59 table being both produced around the 1970’s and both featuring chrome and black accents. The glass top also allows the chair design to shine through so that the refined curvature and cantilevered nature of the chairs can be seen from any angle.
Originally designed in 1928 by Takehiko Mizutani (who was one of just a handful of Japanese students that ever attended the Bauhaus) his design crossed the boundary between functional German and traditional Japanese design. Despite it appearing in print for years after its conception it was never actually manufactured at the time and later models began appearing from the late 1960’s onwards. Although later production tables can also be seen with a banded leather strip supporting the chrome columns his original design (as shown here) featured two thick, square aluminium plates with angled oval apertures that effectively lock the columns in place.
Both the table and chairs are in very good vintage condition – no major scratches or chips in the glass, no tears or cracks in the leather and no rust or flaking of the chrome.
This combination of table and chairs can be bought as a complete set for the price shown but it is also possible to either buy the chairs (available as a set of 6) or the table separately via my other listings.
This set would work equally as well as dining table or a funky office meeting table.
Table Dimensions:
H 72cms x Dia 120cms
Chair Dimensions:
H 81cms x W 47cms x D 85cms
SH 44.5cms

About Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Designer)

Architect, furniture designer and educator, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a central figure in the advancement and promotion of Modernist design and architectural theory and practice. Like Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, he was a hugely influential presence in the field, who shaped the course of 20th-century architecture both through his buildings and his teaching of rationalist design principles.

Born in the medieval German city of Aachen, Mies found an interest in architecture as a boy while working for his father, a master stonemason. He had no formal education as an architect, but learned his skills as an apprentice to the designer Bruno Paul, and as a staffer in the office the proto-modernist architect and designer Peter Behrens. Following World War I, Mies rose to prominence in his field amid the liberal atmosphere of the Weimar Republic. His reputation was secured by his design for the German Pavilion at the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona (commonly referred to as his Barcelona Pavilion), a radically simple, poetic, open-plan building pared down to its architectural essentials. Mies would go on to direct the Bauhaus from 1930 until 1933, when Nazi-government interference forced the closure of the progressive art and design school. Later that decade, he made his way to Chicago, where he remained for the rest of his career as a practicing architect and a dean of the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Mies’s famed dictum “less is more” grew from his belief that architecture both guides and expresses the spirit of the times, and he envisioned the 20th century as open-minded, logical, transparent and liberated by technology. His best-known buildings — residences such as the Villa Tugendhat in Czechoslovakia and the Farnsworth House in rural Illinois; skyscrapers like the 860–880 Lake Shore Drive apartment towers in Chicago and the Seagram Building in New York — reflect that philosophy. As do his most famous furniture designs. Mies pieces such as the Barcelona chair, chaise and stools, or the cantilevered Brno chairs, deliver a maximum of comfort and support from a minimum of materials: their “lavishness” derives from the precision with which they are engineered and constructed. For the collector, the allure of Mies’s furniture is at once practical and idealistic. Useful and functional, his works embody the highest aspirations of modernism.